Ragingflame Crow felt humiliated. He was an esteemed demon that had begun to harmonize with heaven and earth, yet these humans were able to suppress him even after he sealed off the spiritual qi of heaven and earth from them. Flametailed Peacock and Ash Flame Crow were right. These immortals had numerous tricks and treasures that allowed them to resist and suppress him, but Ragingflame Crow wasn't without options.
"Nightmare Heart, attack now!" He ordered using his spiritual sense in an attempt to catch them off guard.
Ragingflame Crow continued to resist the combined onslaught from the top disciples, waiting for his secret weapon to attack. Xia Yushan, Daoist Moneybag, Hun Jusang, Bing Huoyuan, and the other disciples seemed to have set their minds on exterminating the Unity Realm level demon in front of them. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were enraged by him killing over a hundred of their fellow disciples.
"Nightmare Heart, what's taking you so long?!" Ragingflame Crow commanded once more. He had deliberately positioned the cultivators assaulting him within a certain radius so that Nightmare Heart's range would encompass all of them. However, he was not sure how much longer he could hold them down.
Ragingflame Crow turned towards where he sensed the qi of Nightmare Heart and widened his eyes. An explosive pillar of black qi had erupted, seeming as it wanted to shroud the very skies. That pillar soon turned into a colossal humanoid with numerous weapons of all types floating behind it.
What was more important was that Nightmare Heart was being grasped in its hand, and he could feel Nightmare Heart's qi quickly weakening by the second.
Nightmare Heart was a unique demon from the Golden Crow Clan. He did not possess the yang bloodline of the rest of the clan, in fact, it barely existed in his body. Instead, he developed his powers towards the soul. Among all the demons Ragingflame Crow knew, Nightmare Heart was unique, and even Golden Crow Ancestor paid special attention to him.
"STOP!" Raging Flame Crow roared and broke out of the top disciple's encirclement before soaring towards the cosmic giant. If Nightmare Heart died, the loss would be equal to that of losing an elder like him. He cursed Nightmare Heart for not obeying his instructions and wandering away from him.
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Tianyi immediately formed his cosmic mantle, causing the shadow that had coiled around his feet to dissolve. Then, just as he was about to release more true of qi chaos to form a cosmic giant, his surroundings suddenly changed.
Gone was the battered land where the battle between demons and cultivators took place, and in its place was a clinically white room with the stench of disinfectant filling the air. Tianyi didn't even need to glance at the face covered by the white cloth to know it was his mom.
Tianyi's eyes grew cold as qi began to black gaseous qi exploded from his body.
He had deliberately not attempted Paradise Agony Abyss because he did not want to see such a scene. True, he was a little miffed that his score was so low, especially with a dark horse like Sheng Ni appearing, but how could this little bit of pride compare to his mom? He knew that it was nothing more than an illusion and his true mom from Earth had already entered the cycle of reincarnation —maybe she already reincarnated—but Tianyi did not want to see such a scene. Looking at it was like taking a dull knife and scraping chunks out of his heart.
Rage boiled within Tianyi life never before. Before, when he saw the scene, it was of his own volition since he attempted the trail of Paradise Agony Abyss, but for someone else to force the scene onto him? Unforgivable!
Like a crack on a mirror, the scene that Tianyi saw became filled with countless fractures that spread all around him, the walls were filled with cracks, the windows, even the bed sheets and drapes had cracks. Soon, bits and pieces of shards fell from the fractures, revealing parts of the bloody landscape once more. Tianyi roared and the illusion completely shattered.
Tianyi turned his eyes towards the perpetrator of the illusion. Compared to the illusion in Paradis Agony Abyss, the illusion was far too weak, but he had been struck due to the hole in his psyche when he panicked. Even if he easily broke free of it, that did not make Tianyi any happier. In fact, his mind was so overtaken by rage that his mind was unprecedently clear.
In the next instant, Tianyi formed a cosmic giant far faster than he had ever condensed previously and stared down upon the crow demon. The crow demon had nightmarish red eyes with feathers that seemed to absorb all light. Rather than black, the color resembled a hole in reality.
Sensing that the situation was not as he expected, Nightmare Heart was filled with fear. Since his infancy, his special talent had been unrivaled, and only those of higher realms could even resist his esoteric attacks. First, he would break his foes using an illusion, then his true attack came. Once his prey was broken, their souls were his.
Nightmare Heart had spotted two sisters with exceptional souls. He felt that if he could devour their souls, his realm would increase by leaps and bounds. So he had waited when the cultivator using dual ice and fire had been lured away before striking. Who would have expected that the two would be so lucky and dodge his opening strike?
The two fled towards a nascent soul grandmaster, but Nightmare Heart was not afraid. Although the cultivator was in the Nascent Soul Realm, it felt as if it was distant and faint. Nightmare Heart guessed the cultivator's soul must have been injured somehow, making him even less worried or he had just entered the Nascent Soul Realm.
Thus, he struck. To his surprise, the weaker of the two sisters managed to break out of the illusion shortly, while the stronger was stuck. As for the injured nascent soul grandmaster, Nightmare Heart hadn't paid much attention to him. That was the first and last mistake he would ever make.
And now, a giant energy body was staring down on him, its body just reeking of destructive qi. Nightmare Heart's instinct flared up as it had never done before in his life. Every fiber of his being was telling him to escape.
So he did.
The only demon he knew that could fend against the cosmic giant was Elder Ragingflame Crow, so Nightmare Heart flew towards the demon elder. Nightmare Heart's became a shadow once more and sunk into the ground or at least tried to. With speed unbefitting of its size, the cosmic giant's hand reached and out grasped the crow demon within its fingers.
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"Elder, save me!!" Nightmare Heart cried out and pleaded to Ragingflame Crow, his voice filled with unconcealed terror.
Tianyi brought the crow demon towards the cosmic giant's face and said, "You should have never shown me that illusion." And then squeezed.
Nightmare Heart's body was instantly pulverized, and his soul wasn't faring much better as Tianyi's corrosive true qi of chaos began to dissolve his soul and convert it into pure energy. There was a terrible shriek that would birth numerous nightmares as Nightmare Heart's consciousness and soul were continuously being torn little by little.
Everything seemed to have happened in an instant, but to Nightmare Heart, the process seemed to have taken years. Within Tianyi's hand, Nightmare Heart and the world around him slowed to a crawl. Or to be more specific, his thought process sped up several times. But that only made it worse for him.
The elite descendant of the Golden Crow Clan could feel every fiber, every cell of his body as it was being destroyed one by one. It was as if an ant was biting one tiny piece off, one at a time. He could even feel pain from his feather being shredded by his captor's true qi of chaos. It was already excruciating enough to madden the demon, but the worse part was the pain from his soul.
His soul was experiencing the same process as fleshly body, but the pain was magnified to an unimaginable degree. It was as his very existence was being eroded away, one microscopic bite at a time. It was to the point that he began regretting attacking the two cultivators, regretting ever being allured by Elder Ragingflame Crow's lies, regret being talented in soul methods, and regret ever being born.
When the last portion of his soul could no longer sustain the terrible loss and collapsed within itself, killing Nightmare Crow, he welcomed it with relief. By this point, Nightmare Crow had lost his sense of identity, and all knew he was pain. His memories were all replaced by the torture in the last moments of his life.
Tianyi had destroyed any chance of Nightmare Heart reincarnating or fleeing and possessing a new body. If he could, Tianyi wanted to slowly torture Nightmare Heart, but the situation wouldn't allow it, so that was why Tianyi allowed him a "swift" death.
"NOOO!!" Ragingflame Crow roared as his flaming body crashed into the cosmic giant. Flames began surging forward and encased the demon, enlarging his size comparable to Tianyi's cosmic giant. At the same time, the flames began to spurt onto the cosmic giant in an attempt to encapsulate the giant.
"You'll pay for this." Ragingflame Crow roared, and flames burst forth from it and shrouded Tianyi's cosmic giant even more, blasting the front in a fiery inferno. However, the raging red flames were soon dyed black as they were broken down and absorb by Tianyi's cosmic giant. Tianyi had expected the flames to be difficult to break down, but against his expectations, they weren't.
"You must be the leaders of these demons," Tianyi said, his voice thundering from the cosmic giant's mouth.
"I am Ragingflame Crow, and today you will die for your sins!" The Golden Crow Clan elder roared as he flapped his wings and began clawing at the cosmic giant.
The cosmic giant snorted and reached behind it to grab a sword that seemed to be from the Vast Void. "No, you will." Tianyi coldly said, his heart was still burning furiously with the image of his dead mom in the hospital bed. He had killed the perpetrator, but his anger was not yet quenched.
Tianyi forwent any techniques and skills. Instead, he used the brute strength of his cosmic giant and brawled with the Unity Realm level demon. The Golden Crow Clan elder used every technique it had and tried to incinerate the cosmic giant. However, he soon learned what Demon General Earth Burning Venom Serpent felt as he continued to be entangled with Tianyi.
"Don't interfere!" Tianyi shouted at Xia Yushan, Daoist Moneybag, and the other top disciples who were closing in. The top disciples shared a look with each other, and upon seeing Tianyi holding his own and not suffering any losses, they targeted the other demons.
Xia Yushan gave Tianyi a contemplative look before joining the fray with the others.
Due to Ragingflame Crow's sudden sneak attack, the morale of the cultivators had plummeted. Not only that, their formations and line of defense had collapsed, allowing the demons to gain the upper hand in the battle. A few disciples had even died to the demons during the situation, but now with Xia Yushan and other top disciples' involvement, the situation was being reversed once more.
Raging Flame Crow roared once more and tried to harm Tianyi, only to discover that he barely accomplish anything. His eyes glanced and saw the worsening situations for the demons. Gritting his beak, he made a beeline for the cultivators and soared away from Tianyi.
The cosmic giant also moved with surprising speed, appearing in front of the Raging Flame Crow and crushing a few demons under its food while it did so. Its hand reached out to grab the Unity Realm level demon's wings, but the crow demon suddenly decreased in size until it was a third of its size.
The cosmic giant's hand missed Ragingflame Crow as the demon brushed past him towards a group of unsuspecting cultivators. Tianyi frowned and moved to block Ragingflame Crow, but he discovered that his speed was inferior to the Golden Crow Clan elder.
Tianyi dispersed the cosmic giant, and a black mist formed of his true qi of chaos began to cover the whole battlefield. Ragingflame Crow ignored the mist as it couldn't pierce his defensive flames. Tianyi didn't plan for it to hurt the demon and instead began to form his Chaos Refining Formation.
Upon sensing the congealing qi mist, Raging Flame Crow immediately flew away and out with his superior speed, causing Tianyi's plan to fail. The situation was turning for the worse as more and more disciples were being wiped out. Tianyi had already ordered Daoyi and Xi Ri to return to the immortal boat.
Tianyi tapped the jade pendant on his waist, and nine illusionary mountains and seas descended onto the battlefield, encasing all within. Next, Tianyi controlled the sea of time to descend through silver streams towards almost all the cultivators and began reversing their injuries.
Raging Flame Crow roared in displeasure, but his speed had been cut in half after the Mountains and Seas Formation had descended. He had half a mind to escape, but upon seeing that Tianyi's was out of the cosmic giant, he made a decision. Using his spiritual senses, he ordered the demons to retreat.
Most of the demons here were his subordinate he had ordered to ambushed the cultivators, but he never expected that even with their numbers, they would lose so tragically without his intervention. Upon receiving his order, all the demons abandoned all forms of attack and started to flee. It was not that the demons did not hold thoughts of fleeing, but they were incapable of disregarding Ragingflame Crow's orders.
Then Ragingflame Crow began to shrink until he was only about five meters tall and his wingspan fourteen meters. Flapping his wings, the Golden Crow Clan elder became a red shooting star and shot towards Tianyi. Even if he failed in his goal, he would take down the cultivator that killed Nightmare Heart. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to explain it to his fellow elders, and more importantly, Golden Crow Ancestor.
Tianyi didn't move as he saw the incoming red streak. Instead, the cosmic mantle formed atop of him once more. He raised his palm high into the air and began to concentrate. The space around him began to distort as if Tianyi was ripping a portion of the Demon Cage Realm's dimensional boundaries.
He had been analyzing his battle against Demon General Earth Burning General for the past year and developed a few tactics to counter Unity Realm experts. Of course, the first and simplest way was to disconnect from heaven and earth. Luckily, Tianyi was rather skilled in spacetime. Forming the Chaos Refining Formation was too slow, so Tianyi thought of another method, but he had yet to perfect the new technique.
Once Ragingflame Crow neared him, Tianyi slapped down, and a spatial bubble appeared around him. Simultaneously, his other hand reached out and grabbed Ragingflame Crow's beak. The skin around his hands began to shred, revealing slits of his inner cosmos and causing his true qi of chaos to leak out.
It seemed as if time and space had frozen, and everything returned to silence. There was no wind, color, or even movement, just silence. The phenomenon didn't just occur within the spatial bubble formed by Tianyi, but all around him for hundreds of kilometres, everything was silenced.